Duchess recovering after hysterectomy
The Duchess of Cornwall was recovering well in hospital last night after a
hysterectomy, Clarence House said.
The Prince of Wales visited the Duchess at the private King Edward VII
Hospital in Central London after the operation, which Clarence House
described as routine and said was not related to cancer. She had arrived at
the hospital on Sunday night, shortly after accompanying the Prince on a
ten-day tour of the Gulf states.
The Prince spent half an hour at the Duchess’s bedside, having slipped into
the hospital by a side door to avoid the scrum of reporters and
photographers who had gathered by the entrance. The Duchess was also visited
by her daughter Laura.
The Duchess, 59, is expected to spend the rest of the week in hospital. She is
then likely to spend the next six weeks recuperating.
Peerage row donor leaves company
Chai Patel, the businessman and Labour Party donor whose rejection from the
House of Lords sparked the loans-for-peerages scandal, has resigned as chief
executive of the Priory hospitals chain.
Dr Patel “stepped down of his own accord and will leave the company soon”, the
firm said yesterday. Two other managers also resigned from the Priory Group
apparently as part of internal restructuring. A Priory spokesman denied that
Dr Patel’s resignation was associated with the continuing cash-for-honours
inquiry, and said that it was purely business-related.
The controversy began when Dr Patel complained last year of being denied a
peerage by the Appointments Commission despite having been nominated by the
Prime Minister. It later emerged that he had loaned the party £1.5 million,
and had been asked not to declare the money as a donation.
Railings fatality
A man died after apparently impaling himself on iron railings while taking a
short cut. John Macisaac, 24, who was on his way to a party in Southampton,
is thought to have tried to reach a flat for help but was losing too much
blood. A postmortem examination was being held. Police inquiries are
continuing.
CPS man’s assault
A manager for Gloucestershire Crown Prosecution Service manager has admitted
sexually assaulting a teenage boy and possessing cocaine. William Hollins,
42, of Stratford-upon-Avon, admitted the charges on the day he was to have
stood trial at Nottingham Crown Court. He will be sentenced today.
Infertility hope
A genetic switch that triggers puberty could offer hope for infertile women.
Kisspeptin, a protein molecule, acts as a “wake-up call” for releasing
reproductive hormones at adolescence. Scientists from Imperial College,
London, suggest that administering it artificially might be a potential
treatment for infertility.
Plane diverted
A Boeing747 bound for New York from Berlin was rerouted to Manchester after an
economy passenger became disruptive when he was asked to move out of a
first-class seat. Bert Niepel, 51, from Berlin, has been charged under the
Navigation Disorder Act. He will appear at Trafford Magistrates Court’
today.
Stowaway snake
Mechanics asked to locate the source of a mysterious smell in a car found a
dead snake behind the instrument panel. Staff at Murketts garage, in
Cambridge, discovered the 3ft python after searching the car for three
hours. “The man who bought the car in said he didn’t have a pet snake. It’s
a mystery,” a spokesman said.
Brown to support ‘democratic’ Lords
Gordon Brown is to indicate for the first time his determination to reform the
House of Lords as a central element of the new constitutional settlement he
wants for Britain (Greg Hurst writes). The Chancellor, who has been absent
from previous votes on Lords reform, is to support those seeking a more
democratic second chamber in a Commons debate starting today. He will
support three options for elections to the Upper House, backing a reformed
chamber with 50, 60 or 80 per cent of elected members in a series of votes
once the debate concludes tomorrow.
Anglicans warned
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned liberal Anglicans in the US to come
into line “in the near future”. In a letter to the 38 primates of the
Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams noted that the biblically orthodox
line on the gay issue agreed in 1998 “remains the standard of teaching for
the Communion”.
Commons kitchens
Kitchens serving the 13 restaurants in the House of Commons are to be checked
by health inspectors after the discovery of breaches in food handling and
preparation. Evidence of mice, poultry cooked at insufficiently high
temperatures and four-day-old sandwiches were among the failures uncovered.
IT cost soars
The cost of the contract to run Revenue & Customs’ main IT systems has
soared from £4.5 billion to £8 billion, according to Computer
Weekly. A Public Accounts Committee report is expected to show that an
extra £3.5 billion is being paid over ten years to Capgemini, the supplier,
and subcontractors.
Festival deadline
The deadline for the chance to attend the Glastonbury Festival in June closed
last night with more than 300,000 people registering for the chance to buy
one of a predicted 145,000 tickets. In an attempt to stop ticket touts,
applicants had to send a photograph of themselves.
Changing channels
The television executive responsible for Celebrity Big Brother and
series including Help! My Dog’s as Fat as Me, was handed
control of Channel 4. Julian Bellamy, 36, quit his job as Controller of BBC
Three for the post. Kevin Lygo, the current boss, will take a wider role
overseeing the group’s channels.
Baby left to die
A baby boy abandoned in a street just a few hours after being born has died in
hospital. The baby was spotted in a carrier bag in Norbury, South London, on
Sunday. He was only a matter of hours old and was taken to nearby St
George’s Hospital in Tooting. However, he died soon afterwards.
Abused wife raped
A man who scoured the North looking for his wife before kidnapping her from a
refuge and raping her has been told by Sheffield Crown Court he will be
jailed for at least four years. Adil Rahman, 23, who abused his wife for
years at their home in Manchester, trawled Asian areas in cities and found
her in Sheffield.
Chemical damage
Fish reproduction is being damaged far more severely by man-made chemicals
escaping into rivers than had been thought. Researchers from Brunel
University have called for tougher regulations after finding that the gender
of fish and their egg production rates were being altered by oestrogen
chemicals.
‘Dead’ driver
A mother who tried to dodge a speeding conviction by claiming that she had
died in a car crash was spared jail. Swansea Crown Court was told that
Glenda Askew, 47, of Swansea, had sent a letter to prosecutors claiming that
she had “passed away”. Judge Michael Burr gave her a six-month suspended
sentence.
